Delhi High Court Denies Bail to Tasleem Ahmed After Five Years in Custody
(Syed Ali Taher Abedi)
New Delhi, Tuesday — The Delhi High Court has rejected the bail plea of Tasleem Ahmed, an accused in the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots conspiracy case, booked under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The decision was delivered by a division bench comprising Justices Subramonium Prasad and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar.
Ahmed’s case had been segregated from the other accused upon the request of his counsel, allowing for an independent hearing. He was arrested on June 24, 2020, and has remained in custody since. His legal team argued that Ahmed was merely a protester against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and had no involvement in any violent or conspiratorial activities. The bail plea cited prolonged pre-trial detention and delays in proceedings as grounds for release.
Advocate Mehmood Pracha, appearing for Ahmed, contended that the trial court is still in the stage of hearing arguments and that his client should be granted bail on grounds of parity with co-accused Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita, and Asif Iqbal Tanha—who have already secured bail in similar cases.
However, Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad opposed the plea, asserting that the delay in trial proceedings was attributable to the accused themselves. He further argued that Ahmed was not a passive participant but an active conspirator in the larger plot that allegedly led to the communal violence in Northeast Delhi in February 2020.
Meanwhile, another bench comprising Justices Naveen Chawla and Shailendra Kaur is set to hear bail pleas of other high-profile accused in the same case, including Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Meeran Haider, Saifi, and Gulfisha Fatima.
The court’s decision underscores the gravity with which it views the allegations under UAPA and the broader implications of the conspiracy charges stemming from the riots, which claimed over 50 lives and left hundreds injured.
